In 1975, Stephen King introduced readers to the seemingly ordinary town of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine, where an ancient evil was quietly taking hold. At the center of the nightmare was Kurt Barlow, a vampire whose arrival would transform the community into something truly horrifying.
The inspiration for ‘Salem’s Lot emerged during King’s years as a high school English teacher in Maine. Among the books he taught in a fantasy and science fiction class was Stoker’s Dracula, and he was impressed by how enthusiastically his students responded to a novel first published in 1897. As King recalls on his official website, the idea developed during a dinner conversation with his wife, Tabitha. He wondered what would happen if Dracula returned in 20th-century America. Tabitha had a decidedly practical response: “He’d probably be run over by a Yellow Cab on Park Avenue and killed.”
The remark was funny, but it also suggested a problem. Perhaps an ancient European vampire wouldn’t fare particularly well in modern New York City. But what about rural Maine? King began imagining the Count arriving in a sleepy little town, far removed from the distractions and scrutiny of urban life. There, an outsider might establish himself without attracting too much attention, at least until it was too late. That became the foundation for ‘Salem’s Lot, although the novel initially carried the title Second Coming.
King wrote the book while living with his family in North Windham, Maine, where he worked in a small room in the garage of a rented house. His mother was seriously ill, his career as a novelist was just beginning and the enormous success that would eventually make him one of the world’s bestselling authors still lay ahead.
The manuscript subsequently bore the title Jerusalem’s Lot, but that presented a marketing concern. According to King’s original Doubleday editor, Bill Thompson, the publisher’s sales department worried that readers might mistake it for a religious novel. In a 2018 interview with Suntup Editions, Thompson credited Tabitha with suggesting the abbreviated title ‘Salem’s Lot, believing it would suggest witchcraft rather than a biblical setting. It was an inspired choice, giving the novel a title that sounded both familiar and vaguely sinister.
More than half a century later, ‘Salem’s Lot remains one of King’s most celebrated novels, inspiring multiple screen adaptations and generations of vampire fiction.
In this installment, Dr. Mystic, our supernatural investigator (the public domain character from Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster), explores King’s chilling creation, the influence of classic vampire mythology and the enduring appeal of a story in which an entire town becomes the hunting ground of the undead.